The Center for the Arts Exhibits ‘Markings along the Pathways of the Yuba Watershed’ with Artists Frank Francis & Terence D. Baxter

GRASS VALLEY, CA, December 20, 2022 – The Center for the Arts is pleased to exhibit local artists Frank Francis and Terence D. Baxter: Markings Along the Pathways of the Yuba Watershed in the Granucci Gallery starting on January 20, 2023 with an opening reception at 5:00 pm. Through digital photography, oil on canvas painting, pastel and charcoal drawings on paper, the beloved Yuba River is interpreted through the eyes of these two fine artists. 

Frank Francis’s objective for his part of the exhibition is to display through the use of light, composition, color, and form, ordinary objects close to home, often missed, that have unique attraction, interest, and beauty. Retirement came in 1997 for Frank, and his work with photography began in earnest, with the local rivers and forests as a focus for an intense portfolio of work spanning the last few years. The Yuba River contains some of the most moving and intriguing stone forms sculpted by the hands of nature, with water as its chisel. When seen arrayed together, they look like a sculpture garden, as light shifts and dances on the stone, changing configurations, creating shadows, and highlighting the sensuality of their multiple surfaces. Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park contains another world of wonder for Frank, with the scars from hydraulic mining showcasing huge bands of color, and with heavy rains, the colors flow down into the mud oozing and meandering through the reeds. These are just some examples of the beauties found close to home, and which are exhibited as a part of this show.

For Terence D. Baxter, hiking the various trails and pathways of the Yuba Watershed reveals both the terrain and his own temperament. Some days, Terence checks off mileage as if 10,000 steps really mattered, while other days he can’t seem to shake a certain rock or color or texture or fallen branch. This show is a tribute to the occasions of being stopped by the surprise of the unexpected. Terence’s drawings offer sensations of the granite, moss, oaks, cedars, and water from the whittled shavings left in his head at the end of the day, after paying high-value attention to his physical experience. Terence received a MA in Studio Art, Drawing and Painting at CSU Sacramento and found his ‘place;’ got married, started a family, and came to Nevada Union High School to teach drawing and painting, and has enjoyed his place as the gift it surely is. 

Opening reception for this collaborative exhibition celebrating the local beauty of the area begins at 5:00 pm on January 20, 2023. An artist talk is scheduled for February 3 at 5:30 pm. The exhibition will continue through March 4, 2023. The Granucci Gallery hours are from Noon – 5:00 pm, Tuesday – Saturday at The Center for the Arts.